Tag Archives: Jorge Perugorria

Lucía Méndez Cast as Series Regular in Hulu’s Limited Series “La Máquina”

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Lucía Méndez is a machine…

The 67-year-old Mexican telenovela and film actress, top model and singer has been cast as a series regular opposite Jorge Perugorría in La Máquina, the Hulu limited series that follows an aging boxer (Gael García Bernal) whose crafty manager (Diego Luna) secures him one last shot at a title.

Lucía MéndezKarina Gidi, Raul Briones and Luis Gnecco have also joined the project in heavily recurring roles.

La Máquina is produced by Searchlight Television, 20th Television and Bernal and Luna’s La Corriente del Golfo.

It will stream on Disney’s DTC platforms as a Hulu Original in the U.S.

Marco Ramirez serves as executive producer and showrunner, with Bernal, Luna, Gerardo Gatica, Leandro Halperín, Adam Fishbach and Kyzza Terrazas onboard as executive producers. Gabriel Ripstein will direct.

Méndez will play Josefina, a woman from humble means but has pushed her way into upper class society. She smothers her son, Andy (Luna), constantly commenting on everything from his appearance to his business decisions.

Perugorría will play Sixto, an old school figure from the world of Cuban boxing, Sixto is Esteban’s (Bernal) long-time trainer, serving as a father figure and mentor to both Andy and Esteban.

Gidi will recur as Carlota who was born into a wealthy Mexican family and is married to Andy. Briones will recur as Juan Carlos, a grizzled police officer who navigates both sides of the law. Gnecco will recur as Facundo, an old-school journalist in a new-school world.

Méndez is a versatile performer with success in television, film and as a musical artist. She has released 32 albums since her start in 1975. Lucía’s Siempre Estoy Pensando En Ti (1976), sold a million copies. Her soap opera roles include Viviana (1978), Colorina (1980), and Vanessa (1982).

An accomplished actor, director and artist, Perugorría co-directed his first feature Afinidades in 2009 then wrote and directed his second film, Amor Crónico, in 2010. In 2011 he wrote, directed and starred in his third feature film, Se Vende, which won the Audience Coral Award at the 34th Havana Latin American Film Festival. In 2014 he directed his fourth fiction feature Fátima o el Parque de la Fraternidad.

Gidi starred as Esperanza Barrientos in Un extrańo enemigo seasons one and two for Amazon Prime Video, and can be seen in HBO Max’s upcoming drama, Sierra Madre.

Briones’ work in the recent documentary Una Película de Policías earned him a nomination in the upcoming Ariel Awards for Best Actor.

Gnecco has appeared most recently in Aquí en la Tierra, Los Espookys, El Presidente and La Jauría.

del Toro Comes Aboard as Executive Producer of “Viva”

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Life’s a drag for Benicio del Toro…

The 48-year-old Puerto Rican actor and Oscar winner has come aboard as executive producer of Viva, director Paddy Breathnach’s new film having its World Premiere here at the Telluride Film Festival.

Benicio del Toro

An Irish production shot in Cuba en Español, the film is about Jesus, a young man  growing up in Havana who works as a hair and make up artist for drag acts. What he REALLY wants to do is perform on stage himself, a development that leads to major conflicts with his father who has just been released from prison.

Hector Medina stars as Jesus with a supporting cast including Jorge Perugorria and Luis Alberto Garcia. Screenwriter Mark O’ Halloran also is featured in the film.

del Toro was most recently an executive producer of Escobar: Paradise Lost, a film in which he also starred that had its World Premiere at last year’s Telluride Film Festival.

He has produced other films in which he had roles including Che and The Wolfman, but his participation in a behind-the-scenes role on Viva appears to be his first in a film he does not appear since Lovesickness in 2007.

del Toro next appears in Lionsgate’s Sicario, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and will have its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival later this month in advance of its September 18 release.

He’s already getting Oscar buzz for his intensely searing role in the film.

del Toro Accepts Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival

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Benicio del Toro is a film don(ostia)…

The 48-year-old Puerto Rican actor accepted the Donostia Award for lifetime achievement at the San Sebastian International Film Festival on Friday.

Benicio del Toro

In his acceptance speech, del Toro paid homage to his native Puerto Rico.

“I want to dedicate this award to the piece of land where I come from, where I was born, where I learned to throw rocks and had them first thrown at me,” del Toro said at the award ceremony. “Where I learned to take risks and where I learned not to do things just to do them.”

Cuban actor-director Jorge Perugorria introduced the Oscar-winning actor as a “rebel of the profession [of acting],” just before del Toro thanked the festival.

Del Toro received the award before the screening of his latest project, Andrea DiStefano‘s Escobar: Paradise Lost in the festival’s Pearls Selection.

Earlier in the day, he spoke to journalists about how he respected the actors and actresses who came before him, how Steven Soderbergh‘s Che was his most “complicated” role and how not to be thin-skinned in Hollywood.

“An actor has to have a short memory. There’s a lot of rejection, and you can’t wallow in it. You have to have a short memory,” del Toro said.

But del Toro proved to have a long memory when he told an anecdote about seeing a picture of a haggard fisherman and upon asking what had happened to him was told, “the effort.”

“I look at this prize and I answer the same to myself — the effort,” he said.